ForumsNews and FeedbackAllow ALL savegames to be online

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darthgorbag
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darthgorbag
50 posts
Scribe

I have a very serious suggestion for AGv3: Give us the option of having ALL games that save progress in any way, have their savegame data be stored online rather than on our hard drives.

2 days ago, I had my savegame files for half of the games I've played on AG erased, for the third time this year. I have no clue how, I didn't do ANYTHING this week that should affect my cookies or cache or wherever else savegames are stored, but they're gone. Even ones I only restarted a week ago.

When this first happened this year, I lost about 2 years worth of progress on a lot of long-term games. I asked for help from every available source, but nothing could be done to help me.

On the one hand I don't want to start over from scratch in some of my favorite games & spend another 2 years building up my progress to where I was at, and on the other hand even if I did re-start them I couldn't trust that I'd get very far before my saves got erased again... tl;dr playing on this website is starting to feel like Sisyphus.

For several months, the time I spend playing on this site has been reduced to about 10% of what it had been for years; after happening again twice already, I no longer plan to ANY games on this site except games that save online or that don't need to save progress at all.

I've lost interest in Armorgames because the games I play on this site are too fragile; I have no confidence that any game I start playing will keep my progress, and won't just randomly disappear permanently at any time.

Something that would keep me using this site would be some security for my savegames. Nothing saved on my computer is reliable (and it's not just user-error on my part; dozens of computer experts including ArmorGames' tech support department have failed to find a solution). However, if the games got saved somewhere that's not on my computer, somewhere that isn't dependent on me keeping all of my computer's cache & internet cookies in tact forever.

[i]And I would pay money for this.
I would gladly pay for a premium account if I meant that my games' saves would be stored securely & reliably. I expect that in order to offer this server, AG would need to use a lot of servers to store all the save, or something like that, which would cost a lot of money to run. But I think it would be worth paying for, and I bet lots of other people would think so too.

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GhostOfMatrix
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GhostOfMatrix
15,620 posts
Herald

I don't know the exact logistics of how they save games, but if it's possible for them to all be saved online/to your account, they should do it.

Jacen96
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Jacen96
3,087 posts
Bard

I think the game developer has to agree to it as well, so it is not just AG who has to agree with you.

TheMostManlyMan
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TheMostManlyMan
5,769 posts
Chamberlain

i like the idea, but for ALL games to be able to save would be a whole lot easier said that done i think, however all games that can be saved weather online or not (like strikeforce heroes) should give you the option to delete save data, because what if (like me) you have 2 people on the same computer even with different accounts and browsers i'm stuck with my brother's data even though he doesn't care if i delete it. and i don't want to risk deleting important things trying to delete the data

~manly man

darthgorbag
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darthgorbag
50 posts
Scribe

I think the game developer has to agree to it as well, so it is not just AG who has to agree with you.


You've got a good point there.

i like the idea, but for ALL games to be able to save would be a whole lot easier said that done


I'm sure this is true. That's why suggested that it could also be an option for people to use if they want, or maybe just paid account users, rather than for everyone automatically. That way the scope of the problem would be smaller, whatever the actual technical challenges of doing it may be.

games should give you the option to delete save data, because what if (like me) you have 2 people on the same computer even with different accounts... (etc)


That sounds kind of like the opposite of the problem I have here. For me, deleting my save games is all too easy: I just have to clear out my temporary internet files, cache & internet cookies. The inherent problem is that doing the aforementioned things deletes savegames. That itself is the problem. With all the confusing settings in Firefox & Chrome, and all the changes that each browser makes with each new version, and new updates to Adobe Flash Player that come out EVERY SINGLE WEEK, ALL YEAR LONG, UNENDINGLY, it seems virtually impossible to prevent cache & cookies from getting erased from time to time. And even if you never erase them at all, well that can be bad on its own. Personally, I avoid ever clearing them out solely because I don't want to lose my savegames from websites such as this. And I've heard that letting these kinds of files accumulate on a computer over time can really slow it down. So in a sense I've been deliberately losing some of my computer's performance ability in order to be able to use this site. That's a pretty big sacrifice to make just for "casual" browser-gaming, and only because "there's no other option."

What would be a much BETTER solution would be to give users the ability to save their game files somewhere ELSE on their computer, that's separate from the rest of their temp internet files & cache & cookies, so I can run basic maintenance on my computer without losing the things I work so hard for (throwing the proverbial baby out with the bathwater). Although that might require some basic reprogramming of Windows OSes, the browsers themselves, and/or Flash Player, none of which are within the power of ArmorGames.com to do.

Then again, if there was at least a simple, functional, publicly-available way to BACKUP all armorgames files that are on a computer, then people who care to do so can just back their stuff up regularly (like we do with almost every other kind of game or other software on our computers), and then when ever we find our savegame files erased, we can just restore from the backup, so only a little progress will have been lost rather than ALL OF IT. And I mean without individual users (especially non-tech-savvy ones) having to do through a long & confusing process of figuring out exactly where on their hard drive every single file & folder is that holds the relevant data.

For you, ImTheMostManlyMan, this could be good because you & your brother could each save your backup data to a different place (like make 2 subfolders in the backup folder, one with your name & one with his), and then each time you play you can restore from your own backup and then back it up again when you're done; and restoring your saves ends up erasing/writing over your brother's save, then that'd be fine as long as he also backsup his own data whenever he's done playing. Sort of analogous to you each having your memory-card on a game console, and simply swapping out one card for another whenever a different one of you plays on it.

But as it is for now, no such analogous "memory cards" exist.

What do you say, ArmorGames developers?
Any ideas here so far sound like they might be feasable?
Emrakul
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Emrakul
19 posts
Nomad

I have a very serious suggestion for AGv3: Give us the option of having ALL games that save progress in any way, have their savegame data be stored online rather than on our hard drives.

Surely, you can't be serious. It's not up to AG, online save option has to be included in game itself. How exactly you imagine it would happen? AG staff would send e-mail to every single dev "OHAI plz dig up your few years old game code, then modify it so it allows online save in compliance with our standards and send it back to us. KTHXBAI"? It is simply not technically possible.
When this first happened this year, I lost about 2 years worth of progress on a lot of long-term games.

Are you for real? There are single player flash games that are entertaining after 2 years of non-stop play?
I didn't do ANYTHING this week that should affect my cookies or cache or wherever else savegames are stored, but they're gone.

From Kongregate FAQ: "some software is designed to remove temporary files for security reasons and may delete your .sol files, and browsers may be set to automatically clear cookies for similar reasons."
I no longer plan to ANY games on this site except games that save online or that don't need to save progress at all.

"on this site"? I have bad news for you: it's not site-dependent, this is how Flash works since version 10.3.
What would be a much BETTER solution would be to give users the ability to save their game files somewhere ELSE on their computer, that's separate from the rest of their temp internet files & cache & cookies

You poor clueless *******. While I'm not Adobe employee, I can tell you with 100% certainty that this will never, ever, ever, ever, ever happen. If Flash applications could write data to any part of your HD, it would make literally every single flash ad serious hazard.
if there was at least a simple, functional, publicly-available way to BACKUP all armorgames files that are on a computer

There is.

Something I probably should have started with: current implementation of online saves on AG is major PITA. Just go at flash subforum to see all those topics where people complain about online save missing. Then go to one of those games (for example Decision 2) and read quick comments. ~20% are compaints about lost online save. So unless AG can provide flawless online save service, asking them for implementing it in more games is pointless.
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